Principal Investigator(s):United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Summary:

The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a
continuous flow of information on the buying habits of American
consumers and also furnishes data to support periodic revisions of
the Consumer Price Index. The survey consists of two separate
components: (1) a quarterly Interview Survey in which each consumer
unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month
period, and (2) a Diary Survey completed by the sample consumer units
for two consecutive one-week periods. The I... (more info)

The ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) provides a
continuous flow of information on the buying habits of American
consumers and also furnishes data to support periodic revisions of
the Consumer Price Index. The survey consists of two separate
components: (1) a quarterly Interview Survey in which each consumer
unit in the sample is interviewed every three months over a 15-month
period, and (2) a Diary Survey completed by the sample consumer units
for two consecutive one-week periods. The Interview Survey was
designed to collect data on major items of expense, household
characteristics, and income. The expenditures covered by the survey
are those that respondents can recall fairly accurately for three
months or longer. In general, these expenditures include relatively
large purchases, such as those for property, or expenditures that
occur on a fairly regular basis, such as rent, utilities, or
insurance premiums. Excluded are nonprescription drugs, household
supplies, and personal care items. Including global estimates on
spending for food, it is estimated that about 90 to 95 percent of
expenditures are covered in the Interview Survey. The Detailed
Expenditure Files were created from all the major expenditure
sections of the Interview Survey questionnaires and contain the most
detailed expenditure data from the Interview Survey. Parts 69-72
contain processing files used by the program in Part 73. Part 73,
Documentation File, includes a sample program and lists all of the
data file variables by start position. Part 74 is a SAS program that
generates means, variances, standard errors, and coefficients of
variation.